The Big Three

There are three major credit bureaus, Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. These three credit giants did not always dominate the industry. Twenty years ago there were more than a dozen notable credit bureaus which furnished data to lenders. Some operated nationally, while others specialized in collecting and selling regional data. A combination of mergers and normal market evolution resulted in the three-bureau environment of today. In spite of the market dominance of the big three, there are other credit bureaus, some of which are important; we will discuss them in the next section of our Credit Repair Tutorial.

The Business of Credit

The credit bureaus are not government entities. They are for-profit businesses. Generally speaking they collect, manage, sort, package, market, and sell credit data. Their primary customers are prospective lenders that use the data to underwrite loans. Credit bureau data is also widely used for marketing purposes. And over the last decade as consumers have become more aware of the importance of credit the consumer market has grown dramatically.

The Credit Repair Perspective

From a credit repair perspective, the credit bureaus are not the enemy. They are just a part of the world we live in. They each manage data on over 200 million Americans and they do a decent job. As a credit repair company our job is to work within the system to correct our customer’s issues as efficiently as possible.